Become the banking app of choice

Author: Kevin Phillips

Why having a great mobile banking app matters

The term ‘front of wallet’ resonates with every card provider: the desire to make their product the card-of-choice for the consumer when it comes to shopping. Many of us have more than one card these days, so being the first

card to be drawn when it comes to the till, or of course the on line checkout, makes all the difference. With this being true, what does it mean now we have a proliferation of mobile banking apps?

I have a card of choice, no doubt about it. I also have other cards as well as a couple of deposit accounts… and to go with them each has a dedicated mobile app. My phone is flooded with apps, but as likely with most people I only use a small percentage on a regular basis. These are on my home page – the first screen I see when I unlock my phone. Here I have a clock, news, email and a weather app (I am from the UK!) I also have one banking app, my digital-banking-app-of-choice. It is the best one, the one that I can do the most with, and the one from which I can make payments. What is most interesting is that it is not for my card of choice. That one, with almost no features, sits somewhere in the bowls of my downloaded app list – I’ve not even bothered to place it on the screen.

So why does this matter?

so what? I hear you ask. It matters because banking is changing. It matters because digital is going to replace plastic. It matters because, before long I will stop pulling my card from my wallet, and start pulling my phone from my pocket… and when that happens I’ll be paying with my app of choice. The new battleground has already been identified, and smart marketeers realise that pretty plastic or personalised imagery is a weapon of the old world, replaced by simple to use, always-on and functionally rich apps. That’s not all, because as I have more than one card, I have more than one app. I won’t be faffing around trying to open them when I’m paying for my shopping: I’m going to tap on the app on my home page – my banking app of choice – and I’m going to do it every time. The banks need to stop worrying about being front of wallet, and start worrying about being front of phone.

What’s in your wallet? How long will it be before we say, “What’s in your mobile wallet?”

11 Oct 2013

Author: Kevin Phillips

Why having a great mobile banking app matters

The term ‘front of wallet’ resonates with every card provider: the desire to make their product the card-of-choice for the consumer when it comes to shopping. Many of us have more than one card these days, so being the first

card to be drawn when it comes to the till, or of course the on line checkout, makes all the difference. With this being true, what does it mean now we have a proliferation of mobile banking apps?

I have a card of choice, no doubt about it. I also have other cards as well as a couple of deposit accounts… and to go with them each has a dedicated mobile app. My phone is flooded with apps, but as likely with most people I only use a small percentage on a regular basis. These are on my home page – the first screen I see when I unlock my phone. Here I have a clock, news, email and a weather app (I am from the UK!) I also have one banking app, my digital-banking-app-of-choice. It is the best one, the one that I can do the most with, and the one from which I can make payments. What is most interesting is that it is not for my card of choice. That one, with almost no features, sits somewhere in the bowls of my downloaded app list – I’ve not even bothered to place it on the screen.

So why does this matter?

so what? I hear you ask. It matters because banking is changing. It matters because digital is going to replace plastic. It matters because, before long I will stop pulling my card from my wallet, and start pulling my phone from my pocket… and when that happens I’ll be paying with my app of choice. The new battleground has already been identified, and smart marketeers realise that pretty plastic or personalised imagery is a weapon of the old world, replaced by simple to use, always-on and functionally rich apps. That’s not all, because as I have more than one card, I have more than one app. I won’t be faffing around trying to open them when I’m paying for my shopping: I’m going to tap on the app on my home page – my banking app of choice – and I’m going to do it every time. The banks need to stop worrying about being front of wallet, and start worrying about being front of phone.

What’s in your wallet? How long will it be before we say, “What’s in your mobile wallet?”